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Wheatley, Arkansas, 


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;{] Jlutfior of “jl Popular Grgograpfg, ; “Mamagg ar3 Dnrorggf 

“Historg aM 6ml BoYsrDmsDt" ard 
“Bifizgrs’ MaDuaF 


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1891. 

PRESS OF LANDVOIGT & VADAKIN, 
BOOK AND JOB PRINTER3. 
FORREST CITY. ARK. 


























“ Immigration.” 


The rapid influx of immigration to the United States 
has created universal discontent and] uneasiness among cer¬ 
tain classes, and the people have an incontestible right to 
study- the phases to which it may lead. Everything is intel¬ 
ligently presented and clearly outlined by logical thinkers, 
and everyone may easily see its probable results if it is not 
handicapped by judicious organizational^ legislation. These 
essays have come out of the chaos of recent disturbances be¬ 
tween the Italian and our governments. The articles are not 
bias, but deal with a great subject in a business way. Price 
10 cents (none free). For any of these books address C. D. 
Free, Wheatley, Ark,, or B. II. Free, Church Hill, Ky. 


“Citizens’ Manual” 

Contains a ready calendar, statistics on schools and educa¬ 
tion, 1890, Fifty-second Congress complete, governor, area, 
population, etc., etc., of every state, public debt 1867-91, ap¬ 
pointment of representatives, and hundreds of valuable 
things. Price six cents. 

Address U. D. Free, Wheatley, Ark., or 13. H. Free, 
Church Hill, Ky. 



COMPILED BY- 


Q-eo^ge 19. Fi<ee, 


Wheatley, Arkansas, 


Jfotfior oE "JI I?opnIar GgograpEg,” “iarnagg acd Ihrorgg, 
“Historg aiad GrvrT GoYgramgEt," and 
"Gilrzgi}s‘ Manual. 1 ’ 





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Jo. 

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1891 . 

PRESS OF LANDVOiGT & VADAKIN, 

Book and Job Printers. 

FORREST CITY, AF*K. 




















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PREFACE. 

« 

-o- 

Long years ago our ancestors came from Europe and found 
this a barren country, but by indomitable will and herculean 
energy it has been transformed into a land “where fruits and 
flowers in rich luxuriance grow, and where majors and colo¬ 
nels and sweet politicians bloom and blossom like the rose 
forever more.” What a glorious land ! 

It seems somewhat hard to deny the oppressed a home with 
us, but it should be done readily when they absolute^ refuse 
to conform to the requisitions and rules which have been es¬ 
tablished for our mutual protection, welfare and happiness. 

These articles have been compiled from Public Opinion, 
Washington, D. C., and all the thought that pervades them 
comes from praiseworthy motives, actuated by the interests 
the writers have in this Republic. All honor to that old flag 
that guarantees freedom and protection to us; may it long 
float over the government, and the “ home of the free and 
the land of the brave.” 

GEORGE D. FREE. 

Wheatle}', Aik., 

Nov. 20, 1891. 





ALIENS AND AMERICAN'S. 

_ ^ « 

The Chicago News. 

Ever} 7 man or woman, whether born in the United States 
or whether born and raised abroad, who has assumed person- 
aiiy,or through husband,father, or other head of the family,the 
duties of American citizenship, or has promised to assume 
them, renouncing at the same time all allegiance to any gov¬ 
ernment or form of government except that of the United 
States, is an American, and is entitled to all the rights and 
privileges of Americans and American society as long as he 
or she upholds American institutions and makes every possible 
effort to get rid of any previous condition hostile to the prin¬ 
ciple of self-government. The American may by birth be a 
foreigner, Out he is an American when ho owes no longer al¬ 
legiance to any authority except the United States and adapts 
himself to the requirements of the American nation. An 
alien, from the standpoint of American law and society, is a 
person who owes allegiance to some government other than 
that of the United States, and who has no disposition or pow¬ 
er to free himself from such foreign or alien allegiance, nor 
to incorporate himself into the American nation. It is not birth 
or language or complexion, which constitutes a person an alien 
as distinguished from an American, but the attitude of such 
person toward the government and the people of the United 
Stales. The latter obliges no one to remain an alien, unless 
satisfied that the race from which the alien springs offers an 
insurmountable obstacle to his becoming a good American. 
On the contrary, the United States is extremely liberal in 
making Americans out of aliens. It is perfectly proper for 
American law andsociety to make a distinction between aliens 
and Americans in all matters affecting the welfare of the com¬ 
munity and its members. We do not withhold hospitality or 


o 


IMMKIKATJON, 




general protection from any alien. lie is not denied .stand¬ 
ing in our courts, nor is he subject to any burdens which are 
not shared by all Americans. But we do not grant him equal¬ 
ity with Americans in economic or political matters. We do 
not permit him to hold real estate, because that would make 
our soil indirectly subject to the control of foreign powers, 
and wo do not permit his employment on public works or in 
any way where he would become a charge upon the public 
treasury, because he owes allegiance to a foreign power and 
supports institutions foreign to our own. If an alien com¬ 
plains of this treatment he can easily remedy the matter. 
Lot him renounce his allegiance to all authority other than 
that of the United States. Let him assume his own individ¬ 
uality and satisfy Americans that he is not prevented bj T any 
tie that binds him from entering into full equalii} r with Amer- 
cans. Gangs of men contracted by some boss who hires them 
out as so many cattle are not composed of men fit to be Amer¬ 
icans, because they are controlled by another than the Gov¬ 
ernment of the United States, and onlj’ by turning their backs 
upon their masters can they cease to be a iens. An alien can 
honestly swear to his intention to becomean American citizen 
onl}- when he severs all tics which restrict his power of self- 
government. Let every American citizen, particularly the 
workingmen and the officers charged with the duty of receiving 
aliens into the fellowship of Americans, bear in mind these 
distinctions between an American and an alien, and the mis¬ 
chief-making demagogue will soon find his occupation gone. 

IMMIGRATION. 

Cincinnati Commercial-Gazette. 

t 

There is no class of our population more intimately eon- 
cerned in just laws for restricting immigration than the work¬ 
ingmen. The McKinley law has protected them from the pro¬ 
ductions of the pauper labor of Europe, but now our labor¬ 
ers find themselves in need of protection from the inroads of 
the paupers. Some meetings of labor organizations recently 
held in Washington give promise of good results. Represent- 









IMMIGRATION. 


o' 

O 


ativcs of several Federations of Labor and officers of the 
Farmers’ Alliance met and discussed the question of the in¬ 
roads of those classes of alien laborers that have recently at¬ 
tracted the attention of the country to them b}^ their disor¬ 
ders. It was agreed that it had become a vital question of 
self-preservation to call for more stringent laws against un¬ 
desirable immigration. There was a declared intention to at¬ 
tempt to induce all farmers’ and labor organizations to unite 
in demanding appropriate legislation from Congress. Such 
requests wili come with recognized propriety from this class. 
More than that, they will, under present circumstances and 
conditions, carry greater weight than from almost any other 
element of our population. These alien laborers as a class are 
little, if any r better than the slaves of contractors, steamship 
lines, and tnc professional European jobbers in pauper labor. 
The large proportion of those engaged in our mines and on 
public works have been secured through these sources, either 
in direct defiance of our laws or by the evasion of the laws. 
They come in direct competition with the native born and 
the worthy foreign immigrant who comes here for the pur¬ 
pose of applying for citizenship and securing a home. They 
net only come into competition with every worthy class of la 
borers, but they arc for the most .part too ignorant to com¬ 
prehend American institutions, and have no broader idea of 
liberty than to insist that it includes license. They are non-re- 
spectors of law, and upon the slightest provocation they be¬ 
come breakers of the law. At every point of contact with 
our labor system they debase it. There is no common ground 
of ini crest between them and worthy woikingmen. The lat¬ 
ter continually suffer because of the disorders and the general 
debasement of these undesirable aliens. If the labor organ¬ 
izations of the land, in their varied and countless associa¬ 
tions, will act together in this matter they will be able to 
create an influence which politicians of both parties will 
speedily heed. If to this be added the influential support, 
which now seems assured, of a large body of foreign-born 
Americans, who arc actuated by the correct theory that theii 
standing as a class is lowered by the various forms of de¬ 
based immigration, there can be no doubt that the next Con- 




4 


immigration. 


I 


gross will give the country just and effective laws for national 
protection from undesirable immigration. 

The San Francisco Alta. 

It is time that the people of this country began to consid¬ 
er the changed motives of the majority of foreign immigrants. 
Time was when they came because of an intelligent devotion 
to free government. Ninety-nine per cent, of them were free 
from the merely material motive. The}’ were not urged by 
starvation, they did not ccme inthe squalid steerage, they did 
not, on landing, feel compelled to invent servile occupations 
before unknown in this country merely to get the crusts and 
scraps that would keep them alive. Their motive was intel¬ 
lectual more than material. Their descendants 'are found in 
every state of good report, foremost amongst the fibres chat 
makeup the American character. Their blood may have 
been in the beginning English, Irish, Scotch, French, Italian, 
Spanish, German, Scandinavian, or Slav. No matter, they 
are now Americans, because the expatriation of their ancestors 
\yas real and not unreal. Its motive was ethical and not ma¬ 
terial. At present ninety-nine per cent, of all immigrants 
come for material reasons only. Their decision to migrate 
to the United States is not for lack of liberty but for lack of 
bread. The purpose is animal entirely. Every old immi¬ 
grant from any country in Europe knows this to be so. The 
Italian who genuinely expatriated himself, who believed in 
Joseph Mazzini and sought liberty for its own sake, finds 
no fraternity in the Italian immigration that has poured upon 
us since the suppression of the murder guilds of Sicily and 
the decline of the industry of assassination in that country. 
The pauper population that is practically transported to this 
country from other nations in Europe, to reach the ballot-box 
here as soon as possible, is not the sort of material that is de¬ 
sirable in a republic. It is not like the foreign immigration 
which strengthened us of old. Recent events have given 
abundant proof that five years is too short a time in which to 
make this new immigration American. It does not lose its 
feeling of foreign nationality in that time. Its sense of allc- 




IMMIGRATION. 


5 


giance to the flag under which it was born is not diluted at 
all by its oath of naturalization. Its expatriation is unreal. 
Its American citizenship is not skin deep. The ballot in its 
hands is not for conscientious use in the interest of our insti¬ 
tutions. It is time that we began a more discriminating pol¬ 
icy in regard to immigration, ana if men who have taken the 
oath of citizenship after a five years' novitiate, meet by thou¬ 
sands and appeal to the flag under which they were born 
against the flag they have sworn to support, let us not evapo¬ 
rate the useful suggestion of their conduct by abusing them 
for it. It is our fault and not theirs. If we have a national 
policy so loose and public men so cowardly that wo 
permit immigration to lose its original and proper motive, 
and degen rate into the founding of colonies here derived from 
every nation in Europe, each lvady to hail its “home govern¬ 
ment" for help against every other, it is our fault and not that 
of the aliens who take advantage of it. We have recently 
published Labor Commissioner Wright’s conclusions from 
the last census that there are every year 460,000 places in this 
country to be filled by mm, women and children in its pro¬ 
ductive industries, and that every year there are 500,000 ap¬ 
plicants fir these places added to the population, sothatevery 
year 40,000 who need emploj ment can’t get it. This means that 
if we continue to admit the merely bread-seeking immigration 
from Europe, we are easing the cares of every foreign gov¬ 
ernment while we increase our own Let it not be said that 
the remedy is a refusal to admit immigrants, for that is a na¬ 
tional policy repugnant to humanii}’. But let us rather insist 
that our Temple of Liberty is not the world s almshouse. Let 
us so change our imnrgration laws as to make n s no longer 
a mere convenience, a mixture of poorhouse, hospital, and 
penal colony for Europe. We have it in our own hands to i e- 
store fom ign immigration entirely to its original character, 
in behalf of which our liberal laws of naturalization were en¬ 
acted. Such a policy will have the cordial support of every 
intelligent alien-born citizen, and if any alien living here, 
with the oath of allegiance on his lips, objects, it is evidence 
at once of the unreality of his expatriation. He is merely a 
cutaneous American, while at heart a foreigner. We by 



6 


IMMIGRATION. 


no means say that it is a condition of American citizenship 
that a man must forget the land of his birth, for then he would 
be an unnatural man, but he must prefer the interests of this 
country to t’hoae of any other. If he fail in this his oath is 
mere air. Recent events bearing on the reality and unreality 7 
of expatriation have called attention to this issue, and have 
accomplished much in making Americans, North and South, 
feel the tension of a common bond. 

The Chicago News. 

In a recent Boston sermon the Rev. Dr. Phillips Brooks 
took advanced ground on the restriction of American immi- 
gratioh. According to this divine, “if the world in the great 
march of the centuries is going to be richer for the develop¬ 
ment of a certain national character built up b} 7 a larger 
type of manhood here, then, for the world’s sake, for the sake 
of those very nations that would pour in upon it that which 
would disturb that development, we have a right to stand 
guard over it.” This utterance will attract attention not 
so much because its dominant idea is original, but because 
it is timely. The development of a high form of civilization 
in America is not solely for the benefit of Americans. It is 
a trust for the benefit of humanity. All enlightened Ameri¬ 
cans will agree with this postulate. Being the repository, to 
use Dr. Brooks’ language again, “of all that is rich in all the 
centuries, of all that is precious in all the lands,” it will be 
admitted that the working out of the destiny of the Ameri¬ 
can Republic carries with it a responsibility that should be 
the special concern of American patriots. It is far from be¬ 
ing a selfish motivo that actuates those American statesmen 
and thinkers who are to-day striving for the purification of 
the stream of immigration to these shores. Primarily the 
rights of American citizens will be preserved by limiting im¬ 
migration to those who will make good citizens, and excluding 
the undesirable element from pauperized sections of the old 
world. But there is a higher motivo that will bo recognized 
by the world at large, and which will do honor to this nation 
when it is fully understood, Upon this continent it is agreed 
that the problem of modern civilization is to be worked out 




IMMIGRATION. 


/ 


for the benefit of the oppressed of all nations. As tbe trus¬ 
tee for humanity the American Republic is not merely priv¬ 
ileged, but is in duty bound, to resist the pollution of Amer¬ 
ican citizenship by a wise, humane, and discriminating ex¬ 
clusion of the vicious, the criminal and the pauper. 

The Indianapolis Mews, 

It is apparent that the Italian episode has thoroughly 
aroused the country on the subject of immigration. The pul¬ 
pit as well as the press has taken up the theme. It will be 
surprising if the next Congress does not go farther with leg¬ 
islation in this particular than ever. There is hardly a State 
in the Union that does not need a reformation of its laws con¬ 
cerning suffrage. Naturalization is a Federal right, and is 
conferred by the Union. The conditions going to make it 
up are hardly strict enough, while certainly the immigration 
laws or their enforcement are not. The right to vote is a 
State right, conferred by the Stato each for itself, and the 
regulations thereof are disgracefully lax. In our own State of 
Indiana for example, wo allow a man who is not a citizen of 
the United States—has not yet been naturalized—to vote and 
hold office. To be naturalized, an alien must declare his in¬ 
tention at least two years previous, and must have lived in 
the country five years—one 3 T ear in the State or Territory 
where the court that naturalizes him is holden. But in Indi¬ 
ana an alien who has been one year in the country, six months 
of it in the State, may vote. In nearly one-half of the States 
is the condition similar. In the other half tbe conditions of 
naturalization which compel five years’ residence, i, e., 
United States citizenship, must be fulfilled before the right to 
vote is accorded. Minnesota is worse than Indiana. There 
an alien who has been four months in the Stato and declared 
his intention to become a citizen may vote. Thereshould be no 
Stato in which an alien can vote. No one who is not a citi¬ 
zen of the country should be allowed to have a hand in shap¬ 
ing its institutions, and we think that one of the qualifica¬ 
tions required in Massachusetts should bo universal to witi 
the ability to read the constitution in the English language. 
No man is a desirable citizen who does not understand the 



s 


IMMIGRATION. 


L 


language of the country — who has not rea'I its constitution 
and who has not, by five years of residence proved his char¬ 
acter Since the New Orleans cpi ode we are getting to have 
a somewhat more vivid idea of what Italian immigration 
means. Think of thou-and** of those people a week disem¬ 
barked at Cattle Garden, who next fall can turn the scales of 
an election in Indiana and many other States —people igno¬ 
rant of the language of the country, ignomnt of the meaning 
of its institutions, without a spark of loyalty for it, as the ut¬ 
terances of Italians on the \’ew Orleans killing without excep¬ 
tion showed We need much more strictly guarded irnmigrat on 
laws, and in every Stale laws for suffrage which will exclude 
aliens. How can we expect ignorant foreigners to cherish a 
thing which we hold so highly? 

The New York Recorder. 

For immigrants of the kind that built up the country 
there is still abundant room in the United States. But for 
importations of the sort that are now overcrowding our ports 
we have no place whatever. We welcome good material for 
American citizens and founders of American families destined 
to prosper by the honest and intelligent application of their 
energies to the development of our land We repel the inva¬ 
sion of the vicious, ihe ignorant and paupers inveterate 
through shiftlessness, who cross the ocean only to gain enough 
to return to live with less hardship in their accustomed squal¬ 
or in the countries that are then horn s. We invite honest 
and worthy settlers, but we have no greeting for lawless ad¬ 
venturers. We want no additions to our population from 
those whom their own nations vvill not keep. The policy of 
this country is settled against the admission of foreign con- 
tract labor. The reason tor our system of exclusion of those 
hired abroad to work here is self protection Justice to Amer¬ 
ican free industry requres that it should be guarded aguin-t 
competition which is enslaved or degrading The governing 
principle is that of direct protection to American industry. 
We insist that the control of our labor and the profit from it 
must be American and for Americans. So we prevent the 
importation of workmen in bands, under contracts made 





IMMIGRATION. 


9 


abroad, binding them to work for a term at wages that would 
depreciate the standard compensation of American workmen. 
But does any one believe that the droves of passengers that 
are daily unloaded from the ships in our harbor, squalid, igno¬ 
rant and penniless, are really enterprising settlers coming 
here on their own account to carve out fortunes for them¬ 
selves and their children as American citizens, from the treas¬ 
ures of our mines or the richness of our soil? They are not 
free and independent immigrants, but only contract laborers 
in disguise, banded and bonded to foreign slave drivers, if not 
under the forms of law, yet more securely held by the ties of 
secret criminal association. What have such men, who do 
not attempt the slightest exertion of individual independence, 
in common with the pioneers who transformed the country 
from a wilderness into a garden? For the sake of genuine 
and productive immigration, no less than for our native in- 
dustry, we must shut the floodgates against the influx of the 
debased, who come to us and go away again in herds and 
leave their mark upon our national life onl} r in the blood}" 
stains of bludgeon and stiletto. ‘‘America, for Americans” in 
the broad sense to include the fitness and fixed intentions to 
be Americans, must be our rule to test immigration by. We 
must apply the rigid standard of our contract labor laws to 
alleged unbired newcomers. We must accept only those 
worthy to be our fellow workmen and fellow citizens. All 
others must be excluded as aliens naturally inimical to Ameri¬ 
can welfare. The restriction of immigration should be one 
of the first subjects to receive attention by the new Congress. 
Meanwhile existing statutes should be enforced rigidly, with 
constant and suspicious scrutiny to detect evasions of the 
substance of the law under cover of compliance with legal 
fo rms. 

The Chicago Times. 

Never till recently has it been deemed possible that men 
should be denied shelter of this country because of their pov¬ 
erty or distress. For years this distress was looked upon as 
an indication that the incoming hordes would be less liable to 
learn the evil habits of older settlers and strike against their 




10 


IMMIGRATION. 


employers because of dissatisfaction with their wages. While 
an increasing tariff wall was shutting out the products of for¬ 
eign labor, capital was scouring Europe to secure additional 
immigrants for protected workshops. Capitalists had this 
right; their victims had the right to come if they desired. 
But it is now argued that the country needs no more, and 
that, therefore, the doers must be closed. But even those 
who propose this as one remedy are aware of the fact that 
persons high in authority have used the power to debase the 
citizenship of the new arrivals. They have bid for the votes 
of an ignorant class, and have never complained except when 
a higher bidder has cheated them of their expectations. It 
becomes this people rather to seek for the causes which have 
overturned an established law and made it seemingly neces- 
saiy for us to relinquish a principle for which war was waged. 
While a single State has room enough for more than twice 
the population of the country it will not be logical to sur¬ 
render a fundamental principle without first determining 
whether the same cause making this necessary will not soon 
lead to further surrender of what has been held to he a sacred 
right. 

Henry Cabot Lodge in the North American Review. 

Surely the time has come for an intelligent and effective 
restriction of immigration. No one wishes to exclude a de¬ 
sirable immigrant who seeks in good faith to become a citi¬ 
zen of the United States; but it certainly is madness to per¬ 
mit this stream to pour in without discrimination or selection, 
or the exclusion of dangerous and undesirable elements. 
There are great States in the West and Southwest naturally 
anxious to have their lands occupied and their population in¬ 
creased, hut there is something more important than rapidity 
of settlement or the quick development of wealth. These 
advantages will be dearly bought if we pay for them a price 
which involves the lowering of the standard of American cit¬ 
izenship. More important to a country than wealth and pop¬ 
ulation is the quality of its people. Far more valuable than 
sudden wealth is the maintenance of good wages among Amer¬ 
ican workingmen and the exclusion of an unlimited supply 






IMMIGRATION. 


11 


of low-class labor with which they cannot compete. In the 
present state of things, not only are we doing nothing to pro¬ 
tect the quality of our citizenship or the wages of our work¬ 
ingmen from an unrestricted flood of immigration, but we 
are permitting persons so ignorant and criminal to come 
among us that organizations like the Mafia are sure to rise in 
our midst. The time has come for an intelligent restriction. 
Mr. Dingley ad vises—-what every person who has looked 
carefully into the subject suggests—consular inspection in the 
country of departure. To this, I think, should be added some 
such fair and restrictive test as that of ability to read and 
write. What is needed now most of all, however, is an intel¬ 
ligent and active public opinion to which Congress will 
respond. If we do not act, and act intelligently, we must be 
prepared for just such events as that at New Orleans, not 
merely bringing in their train murder and sudden death, but 
breeding race antagonisms and national hostilities which never 
existed before, and which need never have an existence it we 
deal properly with this momentous problem. 

Albany Journal. 


A treasury document with an important bearing on the 
immigration problem, which is new being discussed through¬ 
out the country to a far greater extent than the average per¬ 
son realizes, gives the statistics of newcomers to the United 
States since 1820, the year in which the official record was 
begun. 'I'he grand total is 15,639,678 men, women and chil¬ 
dren, divided into nationalities as follows: 


Germany.4,551,719 

Ireland.3,501,683 

England.2,460,034 

British North America... .1,029,083 

Norway and Sweden. 943,330 

Austria and Hungary. 464,455 

Italy. 414,513 


France. 370,162 

Russia and Poland. 356,353 

Scotland. 329,192 

China. 292,578 

Switzerland. 174,333 

Denmark. 146,237 

All others.. 606,006 


More than one-third of that enormous impour, or 5,246,- 
613 persons, came over during the past decade ; and of these 
2,483,904 are recorded as having no trade or occupation. 
This features of the figures has been given unusual import- 

















12 


IMMIGRATION. 


ance, as indicating the unfitness of fully half the newcomers 
of the past 10 years to earn their living; after reaching this 
country. Such a deduction however, lacks force when it is 
considered that women and children form a large percentage 
of the new-comers. Undoubtedly a considerable percentage 
contributed to the pauperism and crime which fill our penal 
and charitable institutions and are a direct burden on the 
people of almost every communit}' in the land. 

The Denver News. 

Within the past two or three years a strong sentiment 
has been developed in the United States looking to the 
restriction of immigration, and the disclosures of a Congres¬ 
sional committee, which made a pretty thorough investigation 
into the subject, were not calculated to allay distrust in a 
policy‘which was shown to operate so unjustly against Amer¬ 
ican mechanics and laborers, and more especiallj 7 against 
working women and girls in the Atlantic States. The subject 
is treated b\ T a writer in the August Arena, who views it 
mainly from the standpoint of the effect of immigration upon 
the quality of the people who are to control the destinies of 
our Republic. His conclusions are not encouraging, but the 
topic has a present and practical bearing, not to be long 
evaded, and withal is suggestive. Among rational citizens 
of this Nation, who have an appreciative loyalty for Amer¬ 
ican institutions, there can be only one opinion as to the 
necessity and justice of excluding from our shores such im¬ 
migration as would only prove a burden and a curse—as 
would only compel an ever-increasing capacity in our prisons, 
poor-houses, and insane asylums, nor can there be any ques¬ 
tion as to the propriet} 7 of preventing the transportation of 
laborers under contract from Europe to America, for that is 
only another way of pauperizing the country. Past neglect 
in respect to these matters has fastened a stigma of excessive 
crime upon the United States which is rot ours of right, 
nor chargeable to our institutions, but which is due to the im¬ 
position put upon us by foreign nations, which have made this 
free country a sewerage for their moral and physical scum. 
The same neglect has reduced American women in Eastern 



IMMIGRATION. 


13 


shops and factories to the brink of destitution, and has sub¬ 
stituted for American labor in the mines of Pennsylvania a 
class of ignorant foreigners who are willing to work at 
starvation wages, because in their dreary past they have 
never become acquainted with any better condition. When 
our immigration laws shall be made effective in protecting 
the country and its labor from the criminal dregs and pau¬ 
perism of Europe the limit of practical restriction will prob¬ 
ably have been reached. It is doubtful whether public 
opinion, at least in this generation, will sustain any farther 
advance in that direction. It would be difficult in this cos¬ 
mopolitan age to reasonably object to the landing of immi¬ 
grants who, on their own motion and desire, come to us with 
health and habits of industry and means to keep thrm from 
want until they can find work to do. The United States 
owes too much to immigrants of that type to justify the rais¬ 
ing of a barrier against them now. As to the influence of the 
foreign element upon the moral quality of our population— 
referred to by the Arena writer—that is a living question at 
present, without reference to future arrivals across the sea. 
New York and Chicago, with their 80 and 90 per cent, of for¬ 
eign population, and several other cities with percentages not 
so formidable, are facing that problem to-day. With restric¬ 
tions of the nature indicated in force, remedies against evils 
attaching to the foreign element here and to come must con¬ 
sist in measures for the assimilation of that class. The objec¬ 
tive point should be to overcome the dense ignorance, preju¬ 
dice, and superstition—the heritage of centuries—which sub¬ 
ject masses of people to improper and sometimes dangerous 
control. Practical education, moral as well as secular, will 
alone meet the case, and the State is the reliance for giving 
it Intellectual freedom must bean individual possession in 
the United States. Mental serfdom, in the absence of enforced 
education, might easily assume proportions that would in¬ 
volve danger to the Republic as real as evei attached to 
African slavery. The fathers builded wisely when, more 
than a century ago, they laid a foundation of land grants for 
the perpetuation of the "American school system. That system 
has wrought marvels in promoting homogeneity in the past 





14 


IMMIGRATION. 


A. 


and it is the sure reliance for the dangers feared by the 
writer in the Arena. It has elevated European immigrants 
and their descendants in a degree that would have been hope¬ 
less under foreign conditions, and, besides equipping them for 
a higher plane of life, socially and financially, has imbued 
them with a t}^pe of patriotism that is nowhere excelled. On 
nothing does the welfare of the JNation depend more than on 
an inviolable preservation qf our public school system and 
the extension of its benefits as far as possible, especially to 
the children of those foreigners who are massing in our 
large cities. Its ennobling influence on the foreigners of late 
and future immigration is a certain index of its assimilating 
and Americanizing power. 

The Macon Telegraph. 

Gen. Francis A. Walker, perhaps the country's most dis¬ 
tinguished statistician, made a speech before the American 
Economic* Association recently; in which he discussed the im¬ 
migration problem—for it is beginning to be realized that 
there is such a problem. General Walker showed that he is 
somewhat alarmed as to the effects of the immense influx of 
foreigners, when the country’s need of new people is far less 
than it was a few years ago. He showed that while the num¬ 
ber of immigrants in the ten-year period ending with 1880 
was only 2,500,000, it increased during the next ten 3 'ears to 
5,000,000. In the next ten years 10,000,000 may come, as the 
desire to emigrate, in the hope of bettering their condition, 
is constantly growing among the poorer classes of Europe, 
and the cost of traveling is becoming less every year. Gen¬ 
eral Walker holds that our first duty is to ourselves, and that 
we should not give over our great heritage to strangers, who 
are rushing in to take possession of it. Not onlyare the 
new-comers depriving the next generation of Americans of 
opportunities which they will need, but they are b} r this 
presence endangering the integrit\ r of our institutions. The 
bulk of the immigrants are no longer drawn from the north¬ 
ern countries of Europe and from a stock close akin to our 
own, but from the southern portions of that continent, from 
races widely different and used to verj’ different institutions. 




IMMIGRATION. 


15 


General Walker’s is not the first voice raised in warning 
against unrestricted immigration. He merely emphasizes 
what has been said before by other men. The passage of the 
contract labor law some years ago was mainly due to the 
pressure brought to bear by labor organizations on Congress, 
but it nevertheless met the approval, in spite of absurdity in 
some of its features, of thousands of citizens not directly in¬ 
terested in the admission or exclusion of foreign laborers. 
These felt that the time had come when unrestricted immi¬ 
gration was a source of danger to the Republic. General 
Walker will, therefore, find a very considerable support in 
public opinion for the views he has expressed. It is true that 
there are sections of the country much in need of immigrants. 
The South would welcome millions, and be safer and richer 
because of their presence. But the South does not need or 
desire an influx of hundreds of thousands of Italian, Hun¬ 
garian, and Russian peasants, poverty stricken and grossly 
ignorant. She wants immigrants from the North, who are 
Americans already, with the knowledge of American institu¬ 
tions that will make them good citizens in a country where 
want of that knowledge would make them dangerous. This 
is not a section where we can afford to risk experiments in 
politics or add indefinitely to the mass of ignorance. 

The Christian at Work. 

Dr. Hamilton tells us that it is the settled policy of for¬ 
eign governments to encourage immigration to their own 
colonies, and that no government in Europe encourages im¬ 
migration to the United States. But England does encourage 
the immigration of the poorer classes, and she sent us last 
year 06,000 while, despite the efforts of Germany to retain 
all her able-bodied men, that they may carry the musket in 
the coming war, nearly 100,000 (99,538) came to these shores 
last year. And the Italians, too, are coming over in crowds, 
and at the present rate of increase will soon, in point of num¬ 
bers, stand next to the Irish. A noted feature of this immi¬ 
gration is the fact that while only 3,360 men skilled in the 
professions, and 59,985 skilled laborers came into the country 
last year, the number of common laborers and “miscellaneous” 






16 


IMMIGRATION. 


% 


was over a quarter of a million (239.644). The effect of such 
an incursion of foreign hordes upon our shores can better be 
imagined than described. And let us say, so rapidly is the 
country developing, and so thickly is the public domain being 
settled, and so great is the number of foreign unskilled 
laborers already in the country, that we believe it would be a 
great gain if not another one of this class cams to this coun¬ 
try during the rest of the century. That this is so becomes 
strikingly apparent when the fact is recalled that the average 
immigration for the last eight years is 57 per cent, larger 
than the average immigration for the eight years next pre¬ 
ceding, while 50 per cent, of this increase is of persons with¬ 
out any occupation or training, and the tendency is for the 
least desirable kinds of immigration to increase much more 
rapidl}* than that which is valuable. To remedy this ovil Dr. 
Hammond recommends requiring a consular certificate as a 
condition precedent to immigration. This plan, which is not 
new, has justbeen embodied in a bill which goes further than 
measures previously introduced, in making the certificate 
more thorough and definite, and especiall} 7 in the provision 
shutting out illiterate persons as well as those who are phys¬ 
ically or mentally unsound and liable to become a public 
charge. The bill has unquestionably merit, but we greatly 
doubt if our consuls would prove adequate to the task of in¬ 
specting and certifying to the condition of the half million 
immigrants that the Old World empties upon the New every 
year. And it certainly is true that consular certificates wijl 
avail little till our laws are made more restrictive and our 
immigration system is entirely recast. That the insane and 
idiotic should be sent to our shores is bad enough. But the 
economic is the lowest test to apply in this matter. It is cer¬ 
tainly better that ten idiots come to this country to be locked 
up, even becoming; a public charge, than that one finished 
scoundrel comes here to play his pranks throughout the 
country. It is further to be hoped Congress will at the 
earliest opportunity provide for a commission of intelligent 
men and experts having knowledge of the subject, who shall 
traverse existing laws, consider all available facts, elicit the 
views of thoughtful men, and revise our present immigrant 




IMMIGRATION. 


17 


laws and prepare a measure which will lessen if not wholly 
repress existing abuses. Such a result, enacted into law, 
would give us a higher class of immigration, and, if it would 
not bring more dollars in the country would, what is far 
better, purify the social structure and elevate the now 
degraded standard of citizenship which, as Dr. Hammond 
says, is nowhere so cheap, as it should nowhere be so valu¬ 
able, as in the United States. 

The Philadelphia North American. 

From this time forward our duty is well defined. It 
relates to two things that must be done. It would be an in¬ 
sult to the American people to assume that they will hesitate 
to perform that duty. First, the gates must be bolted against 
indiscriminate immigration. The demagogues will resist 
that, but the people must put the demagogues on the outside 
before they close the gates, if nothing else will do. Then the 
scum that has drifted to these shores must oe put under strict 
surveilance and be made to understand that any departure 
from good behavior means certain punishment for such as 
have become citizens, and banishment without recourse to 
eyery alien criminal Sweep the land, and sweep clean. If 
there be any organization of men coming from abroad, not 
wholly social and beneficiary, it must be outlawed, and if 
recalcitrant, let membership constitute such a crime as can 
be condignly punished. But in any case no alien criminal 
should be allowed to domicile here. Defuse them entrance; 
but should any avoid scrutiny and enter, turn their faces 
toward the land of their origin and issue marching orders. 
Let every nation care for its own rascals. 

The Rochester Herald. 

So long as foreign nations continue to send to this coun- 
try not simply man}- of their worthy and acceptable people, 
but the scum and scouring of their jails, almshouses and 
lunatic asylums, we shall be likely to have more or less 
trouble like that in New Orleans and Morewood. The Amer¬ 
ican government and people are not altogether blameless in 
this matter.* A few years ago Congress passed a radical ex- 





18 


IMMIGRATION. 


I 


elusion act against the Chinese,and while there has been some 
grumbling over that measure among philanthropists and 
theorists, it is unquestionably generally acceptable to the 
masses of our people. The Chinese are neither needed nor 
wanted in this country. But they are much more acceptable, 
much less turbulent and obnoxious than large classes of im¬ 
migrants that have been pouring into America from some 
portions of Europe during the past few years. The same 
policy of self-protection that led to the exclusion of the 
Chinese is equally applicable to the exclusion of these hordes 
of semi-barbarians that are immigrating to this country from 
some parts of Europe. Those that are here should not be 
made the victims ot any cruel and bigoted proscriptive move¬ 
ment. but we should squarely face the fact that no more are 
needed, and steps should be taken that will effectually 
exclude those who may attempt hereafter to land on our 
shores. 

The Kansas City Times. 

In the formative and developing period of the republic, 
in the era of a growth whose marvels demanded brawn as 
well as brains, all immigration not drawn from the criminal 
classes was welcome and found ready amalgamation. There 
was work to be done and subsistence for all who could do it. 
A time of undue development has been followed by reaction. 
Expansion ceases until there are new demands upon the 
spirit of construction. The countrj T is filled with tramps and 
idle men and thousands await work. Competition at home has 
steadily reduced the price of labor. To witness tamely, 
under such conditions, a continual influx of penniless, un- 
teachable and grossly ignorant foreigners is unendurable to 
those who study social desirabilities and possess a patriotic 
regard for the higher interests of the whole country. That 
we possess an undeniable moral and legal right to close our 
doors against whomsoever we please is not a debatable 
matter. That the developments in Louisiana regarding the 
Mafia and such incidents as this latest outburst in Pennsyl¬ 
vania are sharp reminders of our duty to ourselves is equally 
certain. The Fifty-Second Congress will have to deal with 




IMMIGRATION. 


19 


few questions of higher importance than the restriction of 
such immigration as brings us neither brains nor means nor 
capacity for assimilation with our institutions. 

The St. Paul Pioneer Press. 

It will be almost worth while for us to get into difficulties 
with a great European power if that shall spur up Congress 
to a sense of its duty in protecting the country against the 
invasion of the offscourings of the Old World's population. 
Why h ad we this trouble in Now Orleans, out of which has 
grown our difference with Italy? Simply because we have 
held wide open the gaies to the scoundrels who make up the 
Mafia, and seek to rule b}" the terror of the assassin's trade. 
Why had we the frightful outbreak of anarchism in Chicago? 
Because our great cities are crowded with those whose only 
education in the rights and duties of men is what they have 
learned in plotting against despotism, until the despot's 
agents made the country too hot to hold them. The ideas 
received in such an experience, and the deadly hatred con¬ 
ceived of every form of authority and every restraint on evil 
impulse, were the only capital they brought with them to 
America. Why have we today a struggle between capital 
and labor in Pennsylvania, which is being carried on by riot 
and murder and the destruction of property? Because the 
mines and coke furnaces are operated by imported labor, 
which knows no argument but that of brute force, and has 
learned no lesson but the possibility of violent resistance 
when its demands are denied. From the blow of the bludgeon 
to the wrecking of a great industrial plant, from the city mob 
to the possibility of an armed contest of nations, all has come 
from the insane" and criminal policy of leaving immigration 
without regulation and without restraint. 

It is not too late yet to remedy our grievous fault. It is 
too late to save ourselves from the disaster that has been 
wrought, or from the troubles of the future that we must face. 
But it is not too late to avert the graver consequences that 
must follow if all the scum of Europe is to be floated to our 
shores. The danger is an increasing one. The old quality 
of immigration has dwindled to small proportions. I he 



20 


IMMIGRATION. 


total immigration is greater than ever, but it is composed in 
large proportion of the outcast peoples of Europe, read}’ to 
indulge the worst passions of mankind, and to draw us ever 
deeper and deeper into domestic disturbances and foreign 
broils. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

It must be apparent that something must be done. Can 
we discriminate wisely, or must the bars be put up? Can we 
trust to partial laws, or must we decline to receive any more 
Italians, Huns, and Poles? for it is from these people that 
much of our trouble arises and is iikely to arise. Wherever 
an army of Italians, Huns or Poles is employed in place of 
intelligent laborers, there crime and debauchery can be looked 
for. We have just about reached the limit of our endurance. 
We want no more of these people. They have got to be kept 
out, or this great nation will inevitably sink to a condition 
where only pauper labor can find emploj’ment. And if 
mining and manufacturing companies persist in bringing 
ignorant and worthless and criminal laborers over here to 
wallow in the mire and degrade true labor, then the compa¬ 
nies must be dealt with. One thing is certain, America, in 
some shape or other, has got to prevent the further influx of 
ignorant Italians and barbarous Huns and Poles. The law of 
self-preservation teaches this, and teaches it in terms that 
cannot be misunderstood. We must draw the line, and draw 
it firmly and sharply. 

The Manchester (N. H.) Union. 

There are two classes of so-called immigrants who are 
particularly and rightfully repugnant to the American people. 
One of these classes is composed of mechanics, artisans and 
laborers who are enterprising enough to take advantage of 
the difference in wages between America and European 
countries during the busy season. Every spring brings over 
thousands of this class, who pay their way, but come cheaply 
as steerage passengers, secure remunerative emplo}’ment 
through the summer months, spend little beyond their actual 
living expenses, and return home to pass the winter in com- 




IMMIGRATION 


21 


parative leisure and enjoy their earnings. These men come 
in direct competition with ihe American workingman, share 
his wages, and even help to depreciate them, and escape most 
of the burdens which are placed upon the native mechanic 
and laborer in the name of protection. There is nothing to 
prevent their coming, and their numbers are increasing every 
year. But objectionable as this growing class is to American 
workingmen and American interests, it is every way 7 desir¬ 
able compared with the other, which consists of a type of 
tramps absolutely. This latter class does not have the merit 
of even representing skilled labor, as is the case of the Eng¬ 
lish, Scotch and German stonecutters and metal workers. In 
speaking of them the Dingley report on the subject of immi¬ 
gration says: u What amazes is the size of the counter cur¬ 
rent. Sometimes as many as 1000 Italians came back from 
the United States to Naples in the month of December. 
When they have made a few dollars in the United States 
beyond the present wants they hasten to their old homes. 
They love to spend their savings in Italy; it seems to them 
almost a sacrilege to spend them elsewhere.’ 7 These people 
are of the worst possible type. While they 7 are in this coun¬ 
try 7 they- are either vagabonds or practically serfs. They 
work in hordes under the charge of a master contractor. 
They spend next to nothing of their scanty earnings, and 
when the season is over they return to their haunts in the old 
world. Their annua! voyage costs them less than they 7 would 
spend if they stayed among us, and so they go and come, a 
filthy, reeking tide of humanity, with no purpose of becoming 
citizens, and with no other object than to acquire the scant 
means necessary to enable them to pass a season of idleness 
in their native land. They 7 are tenfold more objectionable 
than contract laborers, but no effort is made to keep them 
out. 

r riie Denver News. 

The greatest of English historians, Thomas Babington 
Macaulay, in 1857, penned the following in regard to this 
subjec 

The day will come, when, in the State of New 1 ork, a multitude of 
people, not one-half of whom has had more than half a breakfast or ex- 






IMMIGRATION. 


22 


pect to have more than half a dinner, will choose a Legislature. Js it 
possible to doubt what sort of a Legislature will be chosen? On one side 
is a statesman preaching patience, respect for vested rights, strict obser¬ 
vance of public faith; while on the other hand is a demagogue, ranting 
about the tyranny of capitalists and usurers, and asking why anybody 
should be permitted to drink champagne or ride in a carriage while thou¬ 
sands of honest folks are in want of necessaries. Which of the two 
candidates is likely to be preferred by a workingman who hears his chil¬ 
dren crying for bread? I seriously apprehend that you will, in some such 
season of adversity as I have described, do things which will prevent 
prosperity from ever returning. Either some Csesar or Napoleon will seize 
the reins of government with a strong hand on your Republic will be as 
fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century 
as the Roman empire was in the fifth, with this difference, that the Huns 
and Vandals who ravaged the Roman empire came from without, and that 
your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own 
country and by your own institutions. 

These words are forcibly recalled by recent events. 
Shall the prophecies of Macaulay become true? This is the 
land of the free and the home of the brave. It is not an 
asylum for discontented foreigners—anarchists, revolutionary 
socialists, murderers and outcasts. America has a place and 
a cordial welcome for the brain and brawn and muscle of 
eveiy honest man who seeks a home in this country, and 
who will rest content to become an American citizen with all 
it signifies. In coming to this country, however, our immi¬ 
grants must become Americanized and adopt American ideas. 
Otherwise they cannot be Americans. 

The Indianapolis Journal, 

While it would be unjust to ignore the fact that thousands 
of intelligent Italians have come to this country, have be¬ 
come good citizens, and are as much attached to the institu¬ 
tions of the country as any other class, it is a fact that the 
bulk of the Italian immigration at the present ti me is any¬ 
thing but desirable. Nine-tenths of the present immigrants 
are males who have left their families behind them. Very 
few are accompanied by T wives and children. That is, they 
do not come here like the Germans, the Scandinavians, the 
Irish and other nationalities, with families, to make homes, 
but intend to return to Italy when they shall have scraped to¬ 
gether a little money. An equality in numbers between the 



IMMIGRATION. 


28 


sexes and such variety in regard to age as makes a natural 
community does not necessarily insure social order, but it is 
essential to it. But the chief objection to a body of immi¬ 
grants who are all able-bodied mules is that they destroy the 
natural relation between production and consumption. They 
crowd the labor market, but the wages they earn are not ex¬ 
pended for the other products of labor, as are those of men 
who have families to support. Consequently the} can work 
cheaper than other men, and the same objection holds against 
them that is raised against the Chinese. The bulk of the 
Italian immigrants herd in large cities. They swarm to¬ 
gether and remain apart from the rest of the population. 
In New York, Boston and other large cities there are Italian 
colonies, and when they begin to congregate in one locality 
all other people leave. When they go beyond the cities to 
work, they go in gangs, usually under the direction of some 
one of their nationality who is better informed. Some of 
them become voters because they find that value is attached 
to voting, but the mass of them do not regard themselves as 
citizens of the Republic or look upon this as their adopted 
country. Few of them have any ideas about government or 
the duties of the citizen. Ignorant, suspicious and violent, 
nearly all armed with deadly weapons, naturally hostile to 
lawful authority, living in squalor and in the midst of the 
most repulsive vices, they are at war with social order, and 
an incubus upon the progress and the elevation of the people, 
particularly of those who depend upon what is called un¬ 
skilled labor for employment and livelihood. These are 
only a few of the reasons why the majority ot Italians 
coming to this country are objectionable, but they are ample. 

The Kansas City Times. 

Americans call the Italians undesirable not because the 
“diplomatic incident ” has aroused dislike, but because they 
are undesirable. Leaving out the good who do become 
worthy citizens of the Republic—and there are some—the 
present avalanche of immigration is the worst we have ever 
been compelled to receive. It threatens corruption in the 
large cities, where corruption is always a danger. Few 




24 IMMIGRATIONS 


Italians go to the farms or the unsettled territory in the 
West. They stick to the towns, stick to each other, preserve 
their habits, seek the easiest occupations and take bribes for 
their votes when they can vote. Relatively very few come 
with the purpose of staying in the land of liberty. They do 
not understand or care for that boon of the Anglo-Saxon. If 
they have a feeling for the United States it is not one of 
affection. Nothing but expectation of money brings them. 
If by hoarding the money 7 the country pays them and bv 
living miserably they can save enough to get buck and buy a 
few acres apiece they are rather sure to head for Italy again. 
It would be too much to say' that they 7 give their stabbing and 
throat cutting practices to America, because Americans do not 
copy those Italian methods, but their ready murderousness 
does add to the difficulty 7 and expense of our police protec¬ 
tion. Italian labor to some extent affects the wages of our 
own people. If there were more of it—and there soon will 
be very 7 much more—-the cheapening effect would be greater. 
In such work as they 7 can do the native American, with his 
family 7 , cannot compete against an Italian who can live on 
soup and who has no family. The Italian rush here is one of 
the most menacing events the settlement of this country has 
witnessed. We can stand a great deal, but in justice to the 
native population and to those foreigners who enter with an 
honest purpose to become useful citizens something ought to 
be done that the advent of demoralizing elements may 7 be 
retarded. 

The Omaha Bee. 

The people of the South and West ’are not less desirous 
than those of the East that the objectionable classes defined 
in the law shall be rigidly 7 excluded from the country, but 
we are not yet in a position to shut out industrious and thrifty 
Europeans whose labor would increase the productive re¬ 
sources and wealth of the nation Let the law be enforced 
against criminals and paupers who may become a public 
charge, and the insane and persons under contract to labor, 
but the time has not come for closing our ports to aliens who 
have the capacity 7 and willingness to work and desire to make 



IMMIGRATION. 


9 


«0 


homes here and become good and useful citizens. On this 
question the South and West will cordially unite. 

The Baltimore News. 

The Italian immigrant would be no more objectionable 
than some others were it not for his singular bloodthirst} T dis¬ 
position, frightful temper and vindictiveness—a circumstance 
attracting attention in many places. The English papers are 
at present discussing a case in point.which happened at South- 
port, the well-known watering place. Mr. Sawyer, a hotel- 
keeper, was suddenly attacked and cut by an Italian whom 
he had unintentionally provoked, and when his wife and 
daughter came to his rescue, the Italian fired upon all three, 
inflicting mortal wounds. We have seen a good deal of this 
same sort of thing in this country of late, and the fact has 
been vividly established that the lower class of Italians are a 
dangerous people—cruel, treacherous, vindictive and relent¬ 
less. The disposition to assassinate in revenge for a fancied 
wrong is a marked trait in the character of this impulsive 
and inexorable race. Hence it is by no means a subject for 
congratulation that so many of them are pouring over here 
as the cable reports. 

Harper’s Weekly. 

Public feeling in regard to stringent regulation of the im¬ 
migration and naturalization of foreigners in this country is 
more seriously aroused than for many years. The “Native 
American” excitement of forty years ago was due to a percep¬ 
tion of tendencies which are now confirmed. But in form it 
was a combination of secrecy, sectarianism and politics, which 
like a whirlwind blew violently, but soon spent its force. 
The results of illegitimate immigration and political enfran¬ 
chisement were foreseen, but they were then theoretical. 
The time that has elapsed, however, has brought us face to 
face with actual perils. The volume of immigration has in¬ 
creased, while its quality rapidly decreases. The population 
of the country is largely heterogeneous, while homogeneity 
is the condition of great national power. The strength that 
lies in common traditions, a common history and language, 



IMMIGRATION. 


2(3 


in general intelligence and local pride,is constantly diminished 
by the flood of the least intelligent and desirable popula¬ 
tion of other countries which pours constantly upon us. This 
country is the guardian and illustration, and, as we believe 
and intend, the conclusive demonstration of the stability and 
efficiency of popular government as the safeguard of liberty 
under law. Our first duty is to maintain the conditions un¬ 
der which that demonstration is practicable To permit 1 ib- 
erty to be lost in the wild license bred of heterogeneous igno¬ 
rance, corruption and lawlessness, would be to betray our trust. 
The question is not of excluding foreigners, but of assim- 
lation of the foreign element. A state or a country may be 
imperilled by over-irnmigration like the human body by over¬ 
feeding. Undoubtedly the population of the country is 
sprung from those who were originally stangers. But this 
is not a peculiar condition. In every great nationality there 
is a mingling of races. The result depends upon the quality 
of the stranger, the motive of his coming, and the rapidity 
of the increase. Because a continent may be subdued and civil¬ 
ized by the advent of a sturdy, intelligent, industrious, moral 
people sprung from English stock, and bringing the tradi¬ 
tions and customs and training of constitutional liberty, so 
that their coming is a blessing to the world, it does not fol¬ 
low that a constant eruption of half civilized aliens from Eu¬ 
rope or Asia or Africa is an advantage to the country, or 
ought not to be strictly regulated. The English race is the 
chief historic political race, because it comprehends the con¬ 
ditions of progessive liberty. Its politics are those of expe¬ 
rience, not of theory. It deals with facts and the actual sit¬ 
uation, and when the critic complains that a course is not 
logical, the reply 7 is that human nature is not logical. Eng¬ 
lish tenacity of ancient form while the spirit changes, its fond¬ 
ness for the crown when it has abolished the king,its preference 
for repairing the old building rather than tearing it wholly 
down to build anew, move the gibes of the political doctrin¬ 
aire. But take England from history, and politically the 
United States disappear. Take away England, and constitu¬ 
tional liberty 7 is not easily conceivable. So long as the true 
English impulse which settled the United States remains, so 






IMMIGRATION. 


long the}' will prosper and advance. In proposing more 
stringent legislation to protect the country from the disinte¬ 
grating and degrading influence of alien ignorance and law¬ 
lessness, the Union League Club in New York will be sus¬ 
tained by the best opinion of the country. 

The Chicago News. 

Roports are crowding each other concerning the abuse of 
that hospitality which the United States has always offered 
to the oppressed of all nations, to men and women with strong 
bodies and clear minds, willing to aid in building up a new 
home for civilization and capable to become sovereign mem¬ 
bers of a self governing nation, because longing for that free¬ 
dom which is humanity's birthright. According to these re¬ 
ports they are not the oppressed, not those capable of striving 
for liberty, not those willing to be their own masters, who are 
seeking our shores by tens of thousands, but quite thereverse. 
Jews expelled from Russia, whom no European country 
wants to receive, are assisted to immigrate to the United 
States in spite of the protests of members of their race resid¬ 
ing here that they are not the kind of people to become Amer¬ 
icanized because of their clannishness and bigotry. Italy is 
sending the paupers of both Sicilies by the shipload to the 
United States, the least valuable portion of a population whom 
centuries of misrule has honeycombed with crime and lawless¬ 
ness, and removed as far from the possibility of being any¬ 
thing but the cowardl} 7 worshippers of power as are the Chi¬ 
nese or any barbarian tribes. Unscrupulous corporations 
and employers are scouring the least civilized portions of 
Europe for cheap human labor and import it into our coun¬ 
try, where it is used to debase the standard of American la¬ 
bor and to lower the standard of American manhood. Our 
laws are said to be ineffectual to stop this outrage. The evil 
must be attacked at its source. The movement of peoples 
from nation to nation can no longer be regulated or controlled 
by legislation; it must be made subject to international law. 
We have treaties of naturalization for the protection of our 
immigrants, based upon the supposition that ail who come to 
our shores came of their own free will and for the purpose of 



28 


IMMIGRATION. 


becoming Americans in the word’s highest meaningi We 
now need treaties for the protection of our country against 
unnatural, forced and dishonest immigration, against the 
scum and sewage of older nations. The nations of Europe 
can be held responsible for the escape from them of all peo¬ 
ples not fit for American citizenship. They can and must 
aid our government in stoppingthe practice ofassisted” and 
forced immigration. Only by treating it as an international 
question can the immigration problem ever be solved. 

The Cleveland Leader. 

The vast majority of the American people are painfully 
conscious of the need of stringent legislation to diminish and, 
above all, to thoroughly sift immigration. Workingmen’s 
organizations such as the Knights of Labor are in harmony 
with the professional and leisure classes upon this question. 
In all grades of society and in all parts of the country the 
feeling is deep and strong that promiscuous immigration, in 
the present enormous volume, is a great evil which 
threatens the well-being of the nation. Congressmen know 
this. Nearly all of them believe that it would be a good 
thing to adopt measures which would weed out the least de¬ 
sirable immigrants and reduce the total number at least one- 
half. They know, too, that such legislation would be popu¬ 
lar with voters of nearly every class and section. The trou¬ 
ble is that they dare not face the wrath of the comparatively 
small minority who are opposed to any restriction of immi¬ 
gration. They know the few would be active and vindictive 
while the many might prove careless and lukewarm in their 
support of the action which they desired. The only hope 
of relief lies in a public demand for the sort of legislation 
needed which shall be too loud and emphatic for any politi¬ 
cian to disregard. When Congress shall come to realize that 
the majority are quite as much in oarnest as the minority the 
flood of immigration will no longer pour unchecked into the 
great Kepublic upon which the Old World seems willing to 
unload every burden it can shake off. 



“A Popular Geography.” 


An absolutely new book just from the press, containing 
full and explicit definitions, etc., concisely and accurately 
compiled from all recent, authentic sources. The matter is 
admirably adapted to all, for the diction is simple and pure, 
the style clear and direct, and the manner of presentation 
bright and attractive. Wonderfully compact, marvelously 
complete, beautifully printed, and excellent material. Hun- 
dreds of books have been consulted in its preparation. Math* 
ematical and Phj'sical Geography are stripped of all abstruse 
technicalities and plainly and forcibly presented in such an 
attractive manner as to instinctively engross the student's at¬ 
tention, thereby urging him to scientifically investigate and 
carefully dissect the infinitesimal beauties of nature. The 
various phenomena are graphically explained. Political Ge¬ 
ography is discussed by the Socratic method.* Every con¬ 
ceivable question of potent interest that would likely be 
asked in the most rigid examination is intelligently pro¬ 
pounded and concisely and correctly answered just below it. 

Laws and examinations are ann ually becoming more rigid 
and as the teachers become more proficient in a branch the 
questions accordingly are made harder. This book deals with 
nothing superficial but carefully makes every question that 
has been heretofore veiled in darkness as plain as feasible. 
The author has succinctly and clearly .propounded many 
things of inestimable value to students and teachers, and 
has scientifically and systematically answered them. Every 
country in the world has been carefully reviewed and the 
very latest changes made therein are here given. The fol¬ 
lowing lines give some of its contents: 

DIVISIONS— Part I.—Planets—Their Diameter, l ime, 
Weight, Stars, Orbits, Earth's Sphericity, Gravitation, 
Devolution, Circles, Latitude and Longitude, Zones, Exer¬ 
cises, Questions and Answers on Mathematical Geography. 

Part II.—Explanation of the Earth's Formation, The 
Geological Ages, Land Surface, Contour Forms, ReliefForms, 



Orology, Mountains and Ranges, Volcanos. Earthquakes, 
Veins, Geysers, Water Divisions, Ocean Waves, Tides, Cur¬ 
rents, Light-houses, Meteorology, Atmosphere, Winds, Rain, 
Dew, Frost, Snow, Hail, Clouds, Thunder, Lightning, Exer¬ 
cises, Questions and Answers on Ph) 7 sical Geography. 

Part III.—Is political and deals with every country, giv¬ 
ing the verv latest data from the same. The exercises on 
each country are arranged separately to expedite the review 
and to make it easily accessible. Geographical Recreations 
contain ample matter for profound thought, without which 
any science is valueless. The appendix contains: Popula¬ 
tion of United States and their rank, capital and location 
(1890). Successive Capitals of the United States, Area of 
States and Territories in square miles, Water and Land Sur¬ 
face and number of counties in each State, States and Terri¬ 
tories of the United States with date of admission, Mottoes 
and popular names of States, Cities and towns having a pop¬ 
ulation of 10,000 and over in 1890, Population of the United 
States, etc., 1790, 1890, Population of White and Colored In¬ 
habitants at each Census from 1850 to 1890, Fifty Principal 
Cities in 1890 in the order of their rank. Necessarily we 
have omitted much that is interesting. The book contains 
154 pages, and is nicely bound in flexible cloth, embossed 
gilt side title, 16 mo., price 60 cents, and in leatherette, price 
50 cents. 


Testimonials. 

Educational Courant, Louisville. Ivy.—“In these daj’s 
we have no time to go browsing around in the big books for 
what we want to know. When we want information we want 
it quickl} 7 and with little trouble. Especially is this so if 
the subject is one in which teachers are perennially exam¬ 
ined. They must burnish up their mental armor on short no¬ 
tice and must have compends at hand to give them the in¬ 
formation they so much desire. This explains thepopularitv 
of the numerous ‘Question Books’ and ‘Teachers’ Aids’ now 
upon the market. Such books serve a useful purpose, and, 
properly prepared, do much more than prepare one for pass¬ 
ing a good examination in the subject of which it treats. 
This book is one of the better books of this class. It gives a 
great amount of information in a neat and compact form. 



Much of it is not to be found in the larger geographies, and 
it will surely stimulate to further study and research after 
rare and curious information. The exercises are in the shape 
of question and answer, and thus the facts are stated briefly 
and succinctly. There are numerous interesting and valua¬ 
ble tables that convey much information in small space. 

“Altogether the author, who is an ex-Kentucky teacher, 
is to be congratulated on the production of so valuable a 
book, which is another proof that our Southern teachers are 
fast assuming high rank in authorship. The book is printed 
on the Courant press, and makes a neat and creditable ap¬ 
pearance.^ 

Thr School Journal, New York, N. Y.—“In this book 
are given the main facts in mathematical, physical, and polit¬ 
ical geography. The design of the author has been to pre¬ 
sent very nearly all the matter that is absolutely necessary 
either for the teacher or the pupil. Part I. presents, in a 
very condensed shape, the facts of mathematical geography, 
followed by a series of questions and answers. Physical ge¬ 
ograph}' has a very condensed presentation in Part II. The 
larger part of the book deals with political geography, and 
the most of the matter is given in the form of questions and 
answers, which make it a very convenient one to use in or¬ 
der to gain a knowledge of the subject rapidly. At the end 
are a series of questions called ‘Geograpical .Recreations/ a 
list of the States with their capitals, area, mottoes, etc., the 
1890 census of cities, and the white and colored population of 
the Southern States/ 7 

The Southern Teacher, Chattanooga, Tenn.—“Several 
years 7 personal acquaintance with the author led us to expect a 
good work, but it is far beyond our expectation in every sense 
of the term, treating in a most interesting manner mathemat¬ 
ical, physical and political geography. As a help to teachers 
in reviewing their classes, and to both teachers and pupils in 
preparing for examination, we can most cheerfully recom¬ 
mend it. 77 

The Forrest City (Ark,) Times. — “The Times is in receipt 
of a copy of ‘A Popular Geography/ by Prof. George D. 
Free, now of Wheatley. This little book is intended to over¬ 
come the inefficiency of many of the text books now in use, 
and contains all necessary information in that branch, in a 


concise and interesting form. It is especially adapted for ex¬ 
aminations, and will no doubt meet a large sale. Wq con¬ 
gratulate the author on its excellence and wish him much 
success/ 7 

Prof. W. J. McIlwain, Principal Springfield (Ark.) Male 
and Female College.—“After a careful examination of ‘A 
Popular Geography/ by Prof. G. D. Free, I unhesitatingly 
pronounce it a decided success. It is a work admirably adapted 
to teachers, and no live, progressive teacher can afford to be 
without it. It certainly fills a long felt want, and, properly 
studied, will greatly assist in assimilating the many facts of 
geograph}’. Being personally acquainted with the author, I 
can truthfully say that the facts set forth are the results of 
diligent and faithful research The statistics and data are 
the most authentic. I most heartily commend it to every 
teacher, and also to those who wish to get the fundamental 
principles of geography/ 7 

Prof. J. T. Gaines, Principal Third Ward School, Louis¬ 
ville, Ky., Member State Board of Education and Author of 
“Pedagogues, 77 etc., etc.—“It has great merit as a vade me- 
cum for the teacher. I do not know of any work wherein so 
much and valuable information, and so many reliable data 
are brought together in so small a space. 77 

Prof. P, C. Palmer, Principal Fenton (Mich.) Normal 
School and Commercial College, Proprietor Normal Advance. 
—“I have received a copy of ‘A Popular Geographv, 7 by G. 
D . F ree, A. M. I am much pleased with the work. It is 
just the thing for teachers in reviewing classes, or for select¬ 
ing questions for examination. Every teacher and stude?it 
should haye a copy of ihis valuable work. 77 

Prof. S. L. Frogge, County Superintendent, Hopkinsville, 
Ky.—“I have examined your little work, ‘A Popular Geog- 
raphy/ and believe it will meet a long felt want in reviews 
and thorough preparation for examinations. I can heartily 
recommend its use to both pupil and teacher. 77 

Prof. George Durham, County Examiner, Forrest City, 
Ark.—“I have just examined ‘A Popular Geography/ by G. 
D. Free, A. M. For conciseness, completeness and attrae- 
tivenes it surpasses anything I have ever seen. It will find 
favor with teachers, for whom it seems more especia lly in- 


tended as an aid in reviewing and testing classes. The au¬ 
thor deserves great success.” 

Prof. J. B. Fitzhugh, Principal of Church Hill (Ky.) 
Academy.—“After a careful examination of your geography 
I do not hesitate to say that it is a decided improvement in 
its line of study and deserves a hearty welcome.” 

Miss Marion Smith, Wheatley, Ark.—“I have examined ‘A 
Popular Geography* carefully and consider it an excellent 
work, well adapted to the interest of our public schools.” 

Ml ss Ambie Hayden, Wallonia, Ky.— “1 have perused ‘A 
Popular Geegraphy’ again and again, and regard it a most 
excellent book.” 

Miss Florence Smith, Ingram's Mill, Miss.—“I have exam¬ 
ined Free’s ‘Popular Geography.’ For conciseness and accu- 
racy, it is the best I have ever seen. It is calculated to meet 
the demand long needed in our monthly examinations, aid¬ 
ing both pupil and teacher.” 

W. Williams, M. D., Church Hill, Ky.—“Prof. G. D. Free's 
book, ‘A Popular Geography,’ represents better than any of 
the older works the practical points of Geography, a com¬ 
plete resume of the subject. Attractively arranged as it is, 
it must soon come into general use. It is with pleasure that 
I recommend it to the teacher and pupil.” 

Mountain Educator, Marshall, Ark.—“Let us score one 
more achievement in the school work of Arkansas. ‘The Pop¬ 
ular Geograph}’,’ by Prof. G. D. Free, of Wheatley, is an ex¬ 
cellent work. It is on a new plan, and is brimful of the 
latest and best. Being an Arkansas production, it should find 
its way into every school of the state.” 

Southwestern Journal of Education, Nashville, Tenn.— 
“Prof. G. D. Free is the author of a text book on geography 
that is worthy of notice, more on account of the valuable in¬ 
formation contained than for its originality or excellence of 
design. Prof. Free is evidently an enthusiast on the sub¬ 
ject of ‘Methods’ and ‘review,’ neither of which is hold by 
this writer to be one of the ‘great educational ideas.’ But 
the author has done good work for the teacher. 

Prof. E.H. Chase, Prin’l Bevier Street school, Binghamton, 
N. Y.—“I have carefully examined‘A Popular Geography,’ 
and regard it as an invaluable addition to the list of teachers’ 
aids, and, indeed, it stands quite alone in its special sphere, 


0 021 866 751 A 

covering a field in geography which has long been vacant.” 

Prof. J. W. Blankinship, Principal Marshall (Ark.) High 
School.—“Prof. G-. D. Free—After carefully examining your 
Geography I write to compliment you on your effort. It is 
all you claim for it. It is a complete success as a text book 
and should find its way into the schools of our country.” 

This Geography is selling rapidly, many of the best schools 
of the country have adopted it as their text book. The au¬ 
thor has never received an adverse opinion of it yet 
Send and get terms for introduction and job lots, etc. 

“Marriage and Divorce.” 

There has been no sociological issue of recent years that 
has attracted so much attention as this theme has. Is mar¬ 
riage a failure? Woman’s love and heart are more precious 
than are the gems of Golconda. I would rather possess the 
immaculate and impassioned devotion of one high-souled and 
enthusiastic female than receive ihe sycophantic fawning of 

millions. How sweet is the society of a dear wife. The 

«/ 

bark of matrimony is launched on the uncertain ocean of ex¬ 
periment, amid kind wishes and rejoicings; but on that pre¬ 
carious sea are many storms, and even the calm has its perils; 
onl} T when the bark has undergone these and landed in the 
haven of domestic peace can we pronounce the voyage pros¬ 
perous, and congratulate the adventurer on his merited and 
enviable reward. What sublimit}’! 

Many of the finest essays on this theme ever written ap¬ 
pear in this book, the authors of which being the most faci- 
nating writers that ever flourished the magical pen. Many 
of the perils and vicissitudes incident to a married life may 
be ameliorated or evaded b}’ carefully studying these disser¬ 
tations as presented by uxorious individuals. The perpe¬ 
tuity and stability of congugal relations depend upon the 
constancy of never fluctuating love, and it is hoped that the 
youth approaching the hymenial altar will fully realize the 
magnitude and importance of this step. 

“Two souls with but a single thought. 

Two hearts that beat as one.” 

Send for it. Price 15 cents; two for 25 cents. 










